Plan advice? Expert Cycling to beginner triathlete

So finished off 2020 season with 2 national bike titles in age group v40 , + overall top 10s in 50,100,12 hr national champs. The bike bit is ok.

I last raced a half distance tri in august 2019 and I’m hoping to go back to half distance and std distances in 2021.

How can I select a plan that will give me low running/swimming but decent bike quality? If I select the mid/high volume Tri plans I get too much running for my running fitness at moment and don’t want injured. Im finishing with bike coach and was hoping to use TR to get back into Tri.

My suggestion (and take it with a pinch of salt because I’m not a triathlete) would probably be to either:

  1. select a low or mid volume cycling plan and supplement with your own running and swimming as necessary

  2. select a low volume triathlon plan and supplement with additional bike workouts of your choosing

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This is an area in which TR plans just aren’t ideal. The runs are mostly time/RPE based, but that’s still only one part of the picture. Two athletes, one with a 50mileperweek history and another with a 15, won’t get the same from the plan even if they’re both at RPE. A runner who’s just starting to build up needs a different progression than one who already has a strong base.

The swim workouts are… better than nothing.

With as good as you are on the bike, and the assumption that you want to be at least AG competitive, I think you owe it to yourself to invest in an individual coach. Maybe you can get one that has history with TR as well? I personally do quite a lot of modifying. I sort of build out the tri plans as a basis, and then slot in my won run and swim workouts on the same days that TR suggests, but I don’t really rely on those workouts.

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So ive selected a medium TT plan, quite similar to what i was doing anyway just down on volume. Now dropping in my own runs to rebuild back up (amazing how 6mths out effects you) and swims. Ill stick with this for a few weeks .

Good youtube channel Justin, just subscribed.

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